Stone Horse

Nikki Tate-Stratton writes children’s picture books and novels for
preteens. Her most recent novels are Raven’s Revenge, Tarragon Island,
and Jo’s Journey. Her latest picture book is Grandparents’ Day.

The tenth book in Siamon’s Mustang Mountain series has Meg O’Donnell
and her best friends, Alison and Becky, trying to save the family ranch
from closure. Unfortunately, logic and credibility problems plague the
book. It’s unclear why the camp is being threatened, and not obvious
why starting a riding camp offers salvation; teenagers lead
horse-camping expeditions; a lump of jade remains undiscovered until a
camper sneaks off to retrieve it from a mountaintop cave; and in the
end, the heritage minister and his wife (parents of one of the campers)
seem undisturbed by the parade of walking wounded and tales of
near-disaster that greet them. Sinister threats (landslides, mysterious
strangers, wolves, missing counsellors, and injuries) abound—in fact,
so much is going on, it’s hard to keep track of all the subplots. The
characters are flat and unconvincing, partly due to a fractured
narrative line. There is scarcely time in each scene to get reoriented
before the author jumps to another point-of-view character.

Horse lovers may be willing to suspend disbelief and accept the plot
but will find it harder to forgive the errors in equine lore. For
example, foals only a few hours old are able to run with the herd so
statements like “He’s too young to run” when referring to a foal
several weeks old make no sense. With too much crammed into this story,
the reader is left with little of substance to satisfy the need for a
good read. Not recommended.